Public History Review

Home >
Vol 18 (2011) > The British Museum: An Imperial Museum in a Post-Imperial World

The British Museum: An Imperial Museum in a Post-Imperial World

Emily
Duthie

Abstract

This article examines the British Museum’s imperialist attitudes towards classical heritage. Despite considerable pressure from foreign governments, the museum has consistently refused to return art and antiquities that it acquired under the aegis of empire. It is the contention of this article that the British Museum remains an imperialist institution. The current debates over the British Museum’s collections raise profound questions about the relationship between museums and modern nation states and their nationalist claims to ancient heritage. The museum’s inflexible response to repatriation claims also encapsulates the challenges inherent in presenting empire and its legacy to contemporary, post-imperial audiences.

What Does it Mean to be a World Museum? Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the Public Opening of the British Museum: A Lecture by Neil McGregor [Online]. Available: http://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/museum_in_london/event_archive/250_lecture.aspx [Accessed 11 April 2010].

APPLEYARD, B. 2007. Behind the Scenes at the British Museum: From Imperial War Chest to Global Resource. The Sunday Times, 6 May.

APPLEYARD, B. 2007. Behind the Scenes at the British Museum: From Imperial War Chest to Global Resource - the British Museum’s latest plan, suggests its director, Neil MacGregor, is to let everyone write their own history. The Sunday Times, 6 May.

BRITISH MUSEUM. The British Museum [Online]. Available: http://www.britishmuseum.org/learning/families_and_children.aspx [Accessed 11 April 2010].

BRITISH MUSEUM. British Museum - History of the Collection [Online]. Available: http://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/history_and_the_building/history_of_the_collection.aspx [Accessed 11 April 2010].

BRITISH MUSEUM 1982. The British Museum and its Collections, London, British Museum Publications.

BROOKS, C. & FAULKNER, P. 1996. The White Man’s Burden: An Anthology of British Poetry of the Empire, Exeter, Exeter University Press.

DALTON, O. & READ, C. 1899. Antiquities from the City of Benin and from other Parts of Africa in the British Museum, London, British Museum Press.

DARK, P. & WERNER, F. 1960. Benin Art, London, Hamlyn.

EYO, E. 1994. Repatriation of Cultural Heritage: The African Experience. In: KAPLAN, F. (ed.) Museums and the Making of ‘Ourselves’: The Role of Objects in National Identity. London: Leicester University Press.

KOHL, P. L. 1998. Nationalism and Archaeology: On the Constructions of Nations and the Reconstructions of the Remote Past. Annual Review of Anthropology, 27, 235. doi: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.27.1.223